Tree Trunk Legs (feat. Casey Galvanek)

Welcome everyone to another episode of the For Stars Podcast, where today we bring you the infamous and well-known rowing coach, Mr. Casey Galvanek (Head Coach of Sarasota Crew & the USA Junior National Team)! It was only right that we had this episode drop a week after one of his upper-echelon and top apprentices, Clark Dean, was featured! We talk today about a plethora of topics revolving around United States Rowing, in particular, the youth scene, as well as his entire journey coaching at one of the most premier rowing clubs in the world, Sarasota Crew, home of over 200+ competitive junior athletes.

Galvanek grew up in Northern Virginia, going to Garfield High School, rowing both in middle school as well as high school - he has been coaching rowing for quite some time! He then started coaching at Woodbridge High School, as his first job as a rowing coach, where FSP alum & Associate Head Coach for the Men’s Heavyweight Crew team at Princeton University, Mr. Matthew Smith, attended. Five years after Sarasota Crew was founded in 2002, Galvanek originally became a coach for the sculling program, but shortly after branched out into all things rowing. He took leadership of the program in 2008/Spring of 2009,  making an impact ever since, developing Olympic athletes, National Champions, and future leaders in this country.

Our longest episode yet, ahead of the Rane Family’s podcast, covered subjects surrounding the 2020 year, recent Rowing News article, all things centering the USA Junior National Team system and the protocols/knowledge of how the system functions, trust in a coxswain, critique and analysis, as well as the importance of coach recommendations, rankings and surpassing barriers, opinions on gap years, goals for the future of USA Rowing, having competitive athletes and pushing each of them to be the best, team meetings with athletes during season, impact of certain athletes, laying down the “Sarasota Tree Trunk” myths, and last but not least… gives us our first ever draft of all the athletes he has coached at Sarasota Crew, developing a roster of athletes he would choose to be in the ultimate Hall of Fame. Originally, the intent was to create an eight’s worth of rowers but he extended some more into the equation… possibly for spares?? I guess we shall never know… be sure to tune into Coach Casey Galvanek’s podcast, you definitely do not want to miss out on this one!

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